HHS Announces New CIO

The Department of Health and Human Services welcomed Beth Anne Killoran as its new chief information officer (CIO) on Friday.

“As our new CIO, Beth will focus sharply on collaborating with offices in HHS, and partners outside of the department. She’ll direct high-priority projects like our work on cybersecurity and privacy protection. She’ll engage in strategic IT investment planning, to make sure our resources are going to the most productive places. And she’ll keep our entire workforce at HHS moving safely and securely into the digital age,” Mary K. Wakefield, HHS acting deputy secretary, said in a press release.

Killoran began working for HHS in 2014 and has served as acting deputy chief information officer and as the executive director for the Office of IT Strategy, Policy, and Governance in her time there.

She is expected to work toward a better cyber-environment at HHS through CyberCARE, which provides HHS staff with weekly cybersecurity tips; a phishing campaign program to simulate phishing attacks; Healthy Technology, a cybersecurity discussion series; and the Workforce Development Pilot Project, which will identify and maintain the requirements for a more tech-savvy workforce.

“To protect all of our IT systems—from desktops to the Personally Identifiable Information and Protected Health Information our Department works with—we need more than an investment in funding or new technology. We need a cyber-savvy workforce,” said Wakefield.